


get on board

by starfleetbanana



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Character Development, Developing Friendships, Friendship, Gen, Gender Dysphoria, PLATONIC OTAYURI, Platonic Cuddling, Platonic Hand Holding, Platonic Relationships, Trans Character, Trans Yuri Plisetsky, Viktor with a K
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-05
Updated: 2017-01-05
Packaged: 2018-09-14 22:57:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9208976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starfleetbanana/pseuds/starfleetbanana
Summary: "With Otabek it’s a bit different. They’re close in a way he’s never experienced in his life and though Mila likes to tease him about it, Beka’s become his best friend and he’s comfortable doing anything in front of him".Otabek + Yuri being soft besties who are so comfortable around each other they touch a lot.





	

**Author's Note:**

> MY DUDE, I love thinking of Yuri coming to terms with being physical and Otabek helping him with that and helping with his dysphoria. I love these two's friendship and I deserved this platonic trash. I wish I could've made it longer, but [shrug emoji]. Enjoy!
> 
> *Rating bc swearing

Yuri’d always associated being delicate and pretty with being girly, something he definitely didn’t want to be. That was until he understood he could use the beauty and grace of his movements to be a better ice skater. 

Embracing your femininity as a boy wasn’t wrong to others, he got that, but embracing __his own__ femininity when training without his binder on made him want to fight absolutely everyone. It was hard to be as delicate as ice skating demanded when people expected him to be hypermasculine in order to acknowledge he was an actual boy.

They all knew damn well he was a boy whether he was under the scrutiny of a Prima Ballerina in his tights or wearing his binder and over-sized t-shirts. 

Yuri’d always had a hard time accepting he was allowed to be his own version of himself, a fifteen year-old boy who kicked everyone’s ass both on the ice and outside of it and who was mildly afraid of appearing soft in front of others and trusting people. It wasn’t that he didn’t like being hugged or feeling accepted, it’s just that most of the time people said “I like you” accompanied by a ‘but’, something he absolutely had to change about himself, of his appearance, of the way he chose to look.

So he’d allowed himself little things knowing that baby steps were important to start any sort of process after being told a thousand times by Viktor Nikiforov himself he needed to embrace the actual way he saw himself to be able to truly express himself on the ice. After having fought a million times with his parents to get his hair cut when he was 11 without even telling them exactly why he couldn’t stand having people comment on how much of a __pretty girl__  his hair made him look -and Yuri Plisetsky was definitely not a pretty __girl__ \- he let himself enjoy the idea of having long hair for himself now, not because other people thought he had to.

Since people always seemed too observant of his behaviour and constantly judged the validity of his gender based on every little thing he did -fuck, he couldn’t even like cats without people saying it was girly, it was ridiculous-, he’d always pushed people away but now he had friends. Ridiculous friends, so to speak, especially one Katsudon/Pig who understood his uneasiness and anxiety more than the rest of them. Viktor helped too but he was probably the most oblivious piece of crap he’d met in his entire life and Mila was... Mila was hard to classify as a friend.

Viktor, however forgetful and embarrassing as he was, often made him realise the importance of liking himself -even though he thought Viktor liked himself a little too much-, and then Katsudon always listened to him and supported him when he confessed he thought he needed something from someone else, or even from himself, he couldn’t exactly get without feeling a bit socially disphoric. __Being soft doesn’t mean you’re not a boy, Yurio__ , he said, as if it was as simple as that and sometimes, just sometimes, Yuri believed him.

So it does get a bit easier to deal with the reflection in the mirror, it gets ten times more enjoyable to tie his hair into a ponytail and focus on making his movements more fluid and delicate, to focus on making himself look __beautiful__ on the ice. His chest dysphoria doesn’t magically disappear, of course, but he’s working to get to a place where he’s comfortable with his body and his expression. Yuri’s learning to like himself both physically and emotionally, with everything he considers weaknesses but Katsudon thinks are something he has to acknowledge and talk about. In Viktor’s words, although probably wrong, Yurio’s __softening__ which he insists is something that’ll help him grow.

It’s not so uncomfortable when he’s around people who don’t question anything about him. Yes, sometimes Yuuri will gasp if he sees him doing something ridiculously soft but it only ends up encouraging him to keep going because his reactions are gold.

And all in all Yuri enjoys whatever’s seen as ‘soft’ coming from him.

With Otabek it’s a bit different. They’re close in a way he’s never experienced in his life and though Mila likes to tease him about it, Beka’s become his best friend and he’s comfortable doing anything in front of him. Beka listens to him rant about other skaters wasting his time and not doing their best and dumb people who misgender him because he’s still going through puberty and his voice is a little bit too high according to them. He’s comfortable with hugs, something he used to be incredibly uncomfortable with, because when people touched him he felt even more judged and when he admitted his weakness in any way it only made him believe they were right when they said he was just doing it for attention.

Otabek’d come into his life like a fucking cliché, saving him from his fans in the streets of a city he didn’t even know that well, and he’d put his arms around his waist easily just for the sake of safe riding on a bike of some random ice skater who’d decided to be kind to him. He hadn’t been scared right then.

Beka’d actually __asked__ him to be his friend because he was as much of a fighter as Beka was and Yuri hadn’t even known what to say, so he’d just smiled for three hours straight. It didn’t feel weird to smile and nod at his words, or laugh at his jokes.

Yuri appreciates all of his friends, not only his __bestie,__ but his support comes more naturally and it feels more like they’re equal, whereas in all of his other friendships the age difference is obvious in the way they express their love and worry. Otabek isn’t like that, so a simple thumbs up feels less embarrassing and as comforting as Yuuri and Viktor yelling different versions of “давай!”.

Otabek’s presence makes his anxiety go away and helps him forget how fucking awful dysphoria is because talking about it helps and though Beka doesn’t say too much, he listens and reassures him that, yes, in fact, they’re stupid comments and that yes, in fact, everyone has insecurities, including him however stoic he might seem. Yuri knows better, of course, he knows Beka’s a softer side too. It shows when he’s having a hard time and he takes his hand in his and runs his fingers through the lines of the palm of it, making up random facts about his future. It’s perfect distraction, actually.

But friendship and support aren’t one-sided, Yuri knows, and though he has the privilege of being close to Otabek, a rather shy and private person, and calling him ‘Beka’ without a reaction, he gives a lot of him to make sure he knows he’s there for him too. He’s used to giving him a thumbs up and casually patting his hand when Beka finishes his routines to make him feel a little bit more confident. He always smiles in return.

Yuri enjoys closeness, and even more so this kind of closeness where he can just press his face against Otabek’s back when they’re riding his bike and hold his hand when Beka won’t walk fast enough. They can hold onto each other without it being weird and Yuri’s so grateful he can play with his fingers while Beka tells him how much he hates how sweaty his hands are.

It’s support and it feels like more than words when he falls in the middle of his short program and manages to get too many bruises and too much pain for it to ignore even days after it happens. Beka holds his hand tightly after seeing his score and his grandpa still clapping proudly.

But there’s also softness in their boring jokes and Beka’s bad puns when after their routines they go into the other’s hotel room to relax. They talk about the other skaters, ignore the chat group and discuss their ideas for the next season while Yuri tries to keep Otabek still so he’ll be able to paint his nails properly.

“Yura, come on, quit moving so much” Otabek retorts ten minutes later when he’s trying to braid Yuri’s hair the way the girl in the video’s braiding hers.

“My back hurts and my ribs are bruised, don’t tell me what to do” Yuri scoffs and answers when Otabek tugs a strand of hair just a little. He enjoys Beka braiding his hair way too much to really honestly complain and Otabek gets that about him. He isn’t complaining, he’s just being too defensive, as always.

“You’re the asshole who wore his binder in the morning before a competition, told ya not to”

“Shut up, don’t tell me what to do” He says, holding a section of his hair Otabek isn’t supposed to include in the braid just yet. He hopes he doesn’t forget it like that one time he left him with an improvised ugly ponytail in one side and a full dutch braid on the right side of his head. He looked ridiculous.

“Yura, stop being so stubborn” Otabek says in a more serious tone because he worries and he knows Yuri doesn’t always listen when his dysphoria’s ruining his day. Yuri scoffs again in response.

After Otabek finishes with his hair -and damn does it look great, Otabek thinks when he inspects it later-, he brings him some ibuprofen and an ice pack and sits with him. He turns around despite Yuri not explicitly asking him to when he fumbles with his t-shirt to get the ice pack just under his chest to make it hurt less. It’s not like people disrespect him, but he isn’t used to someone being this conscious of themselves when the other people he spends the most time with are fucking Viktor Nikiforov and Katsuki Yuuri. They’re basically oblivious parents who try their hardest to make him feel comfortable so they end up being ridiculous.

They don’t spend that much time together in person because Yakov can deal with only so much, but they do talk a lot nevertheless. They rabb.it movies together and sometimes Otabek yells at him in all caps through the chat window “ _ _YURA, YURAAAA!! DID U SEE THAT THIS MOVIES UNBELIEVABLE YURA TIS IS SI GREAT__ ”. Yuri’s never enjoyed seeing someone excited as much he does Otabek so he texts him a few days before they see each other in person again:

__‘were having a star wars marathon when u get here, get ur shit together i dont want u to cry every time luke breathes’_ _

Yuri likes star wars, but he likes much more the way Beka’s face lights up throwing random star wars facts at him whenever he remembers another one. Yuri’s sure there’s nothing better than platonic cuddling when Otabek’s this warm and the movie’s lulling him to sleep until Beka interrupts him with a gasp and says ‘Did you fucking see that, Yura? Leia motherfucking Organa’. He tells him to shut up and to get his arm back where it was because now he’s fucking cold.

“Yura don’t fall asleep, this is the best part” Otabek says and Yuri buries his face in the pillow.

“You’ve said that like a thousand times” Yuri says, slurred and muffled and tired.

Yuri falls asleep and wakes up with Otabek snoring softly next to him, his sweaty hand splayed on his stomach. The movie hasn’t even ended and despite how excited Otabek gets with movies he always falls asleep wrapped around Yuri. He’s sure he’s the worst improvised pillow anyway, but Otabek always falls asleep on him after competitions and in shared taxis.

And truth is, Yuri’s not afraid of being __soft__ when he’s with his best friend, because that stupid stoic boy is the softest he’s ever known when they’re alone, so he lets himself be however soft he can because Beka tells him he looks cool with that headband with cat ears, because Katsudon’s told him a thousand times he doesn’t need to hurt himself during competitions to meet someone else’s expectations of what a boy’s body should look like, because Viktor tells him a thousand times his appearance and the beauty of his skating doesn’t make him less of a boy, because Mila’s willing to call him ‘boyyyyyyy’ whenever they’re out and people take a little too long to find the right pronouns. He doesn’t need other people’s approval, but he’s glad he’s got his friends’ support.

   

**Author's Note:**

> Any kind of feedback is appreciated, honestly I die for feedback, it feeds me, thanks. I sincerely hope y'all enjoyed this. Find me @ cptjaylah on twitter for more yoi trash.


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